Building automation systems can include building control systems such as a Heating, Ventilation and/or Air Conditioning (HVAC) system, a security/access control system, a lighting system, a fire system and/or other building control system of a building. Many such building control systems include one or more mechanical actuators for actuating a building component such as a valve, a damper, a door lock and/or other building component. Such actuators are often used until failure, and in some cases, such failure may go unnoticed for an extended period of time. During this time, the corresponding building control system may perform in a sub-optimal manner. For example, in an HVAC system, if a damper actuator that controls the flow of conditioned air to a zone of a building fails, the zone may become over-conditioned (e.g. the damper is stuck open) or under conditioned (e.g. the damper is stuck closed). This may lead to wasted energy and/or a reduction in occupant discomfort until the damper actuator failure is discovered and is replaced.
In some cases, a calendar based maintenance program may be established for each building component of a building automation system. A calendar based maintenance program typically dictates when each of the building component should be replaced based on a worst case scenario so that statistically the building components will be replaced before they fail. While such calendar based maintenance programs may be useful in maintaining the building control system, some of the building components will be replaced pre-maturely while others may fail before the indicated replacement date. In example, some mechanical actuators may not be actuated very often, and/or operated in a way or under operating conditions that allow the mechanical actuators to continue to operate for an extended period of time beyond that which is assumed by the calendar based maintenance program. Likewise, some mechanical actuators may be actuated very often, and/or operated in a way or under operating conditions that causes the mechanical actuators to fail before the date assumed by the calendar based maintenance program. The actual failure date of an actuator may depend on a variant of factors that are not considered by a calendar based maintenance program including for example, the particular building component in the building control system that is being controlled, the placement and/or actual operation of the mechanical actuator, the environmental conditions surrounding the mechanical actuator, as well as other factors.
What would be desirable is an actuator that tracks various local parameters over time, and then use those local parameters to determine an expected failure date for the particular actuator. The actuator may then be replaced before the expected date of failure.